Eating to run

Over the years I've played on a lot of dietary playgrounds, everything from calorie counting to point counting to going low-carb to no carb to doing juice fasts.  In the past few years, I've gotten more and more careful about choosing more organic, whole, natural, and locally sourced foods.  I shun artificial sweeteners and HFCS.  But one thing I've never really hopped on board with is vegetarianism.  I love meat.  I really do.  Big, thick, medium rare steaks that bleed on the plate.  The melt-in-your-mouth prime rib with the amazing herb rub at one of our local restaurants.  Dry rubbed ribs.  Free range Thanksgiving turkey dark meat.  Bison.  Deer jerky.  All of it.

On the other hand I realized long ago that most of us these days eat far too much meat.  We've gotten used to the idea that a meal needs to be anchored by something meaty, usually a portion that's far too large.  Health experts for decades now have pushed us to eat more fruits and vegetables and whole grains.  Yes, we need protein.  But when we started eating more local and natural foods, our meat consumption decreased as well.  And I've started to question recently whether eating meat is the best way to get the necessary protein in my running diet.

And I've come to the conclusion that it probably isn't.  So I've decided to be a vegetarian runner.

So a couple of weeks ago I started removing meat from my diet.  Already I really like the changes it's produced.  It forces me to choose foods more carefully.  Instead of the easiest options (like the always-available roller grill food or Lunchables or cheap sandwiches) I'm more likely to grab some nuts or popcorn or a protein bar for a snack at work.  At restaurants the vegetarian options are generally (though not always) less likely to come deep fried or slathered in a rich sauce.  It severely limits my ability to eat fast food.  And none of it has proven difficult.  That's the crazy thing -- for somebody who really likes meat, it's been really, really easy to say goodbye. I still have plenty of sources of protein in my diet, and many of the meals we eat on a regular basis at home are easily made meat-free, usually just by, you know, not putting the meat in it. 

Before I went ahead with this, I did a little research into whether one can properly eat to run on a vegetarian diet.  And it turns out not only can you, but many runners find it helps them.  As long as one makes sure they're still getting enough protein, cutting out meat usually means eating more and better carbs and less fat, which usually also means easier digestion and more energy for running.

So that's my new thing.  It's not that I have any moral objection to the consumption of animal flesh.  I just think it's not really supposed to be the center of our diets. And if cutting it out makes me select the rest of my diet more carefully to support my running, then I'm game.  I'm not going to be militant about it.  I refuse to give up sushi altogether (not that I have sushi that often, anyway), and I'm not going to refuse to eat in social situations that don't conform to my dietary preferences.  But I don't imagine there will be that many situations in which I can't find SOMETHING to eat.  We had a big meeting at work last week, and although they didn't give us any choice at all for lunch I traded my turkey to another manager for all her veggies and ended up with a bigger meal than everyone else got. 

I hit the gym four times this week as planned, even with some lazy days and long meetings.  Running quarter mile intervals now, and working my way up to full miles.  I'm gonna make a "real" runner out of myself yet. 

The funny thing is that it feels like forever since the marathon, and it hasn't even been a year.  It's been nice to get back on a workout schedule and find that I haven't completely lost my fitness level.  I couldn't go out and do a marathon today, of course, but my running ability is pretty much where it was when I started my training plan last time.  So, you know, all systems go.

Lessons Learned

So far pre-pre-training is going well.  Hit the gym four times this week, and did some light walking out on the trail yesterday morning where I tested out my GPS watch.  Turns out the Timex one doesn't have an interval timer, either.  So I'm going to keep the Soleus and look for a cheap interval timer I can clip on for runs.  I really like the Soleus other than the one missing feature, and popping an extra $20 on an interval timer is cheaper than shelling out an extra $60-$100 to get a GPS watch that has an interval feature.

Anyway, Brenda and Kourt and I have done a lot of talking lately about how we're going to do things differently this time around.  Looking ahead to a second marathon, I think it's important to assess the things I did the first time around that maybe didn't work so well and the things I didn't do that I now I wish I had.  Not only will it help me beat my time from last year (not like the bar hasn't been set pretty damn low, though) but it will help me guide Kourt in the right direction.  No sense in her making the same mistakes I made.  So here's what I learned last year and how we're going to do things differently:

1.  Do ALL the workouts.
   The single biggest mistake I made last year was letting schedule changes and stress keep me out of the gym during the week during the last two months of training.  Neglecting my weekly mileage resulted in hamstring problems, kept me from finishing all my long runs, and put me at the start line less prepared than I should have been.  At my level of performance (i.e. pretty damn low, lolz) it doesn't even matter if I don't do specific workouts during the week (i.e. one day intervals, one day tempo run, etc), I just need to put in the time and mileage.  One foot in front of the other.  Period. 
2. Build base mileage early.  REALLY early.
   The thing about the marathon is that it's not really about speed.  It's more about learning to not go too fast than it is about going fast.  Learning good pacing means learning to hold back when you need to.  Yeah, if you're trying to qualify for Boston it's different, but for those of us at the back of the pack being race ready mostly means having a body accustomed to pounding the pavement mile after mile.  The more you've run before the race, the better you'll run during the race, even if a lot of that running wasn't fast.  The more time I spend on the treadmill and trail now, the easier it will be to train and race.  And unlike last year, I'm not going into this wondering if I can even make my body go 26.2 miles.  I know I can.  This time it's not about proving I can.  This time it's about just being as ready as I can be.  So that's why I'm starting now.  Every mile I run or walk gets me that much more ready for the race.
3. Put my name on my shirt.
   The effect of having thousands and thousands of people on the race course cheering you on really surprised me last time.  Maybe it shouldn't have.  But as I ran last year and heard people cheering on runners by name because they'd put their names on their shirts, I found myself wishing I'd done the same. It would have been nice to hear people yelling my name.
4. Don't stress about the numbers.
   I'm a geek.  I like numbers and graphs and charts.  Already I've been taking photos of the treadmill and elliptical machine displays after workouts so I can keep track of my progress as the weeks go on.  But aside from it being cool to geek out with the numbers, I need to keep them from being something that affects my mood about training.  I only have to beat 7 hours.  There's really no need to stress about it.
5. No dieting.
   I still need to lose weight.  But I understand now that you have to focus on one thing at a time.  If I'm training properly, weight loss should naturally follow.  But I'm not going to be counting calories and trying to drop 2 pounds a week.  I will try to eat as healthy as possible so I'm consuming enough carbs to fuel my workouts and enough protein to support muscle recovery, but I won't diet.  That's not to say I won't change my eating habits.  I'm just going to focus on performance, not on my weight.
6. Don't let the weather get in the way.
   Cloud to ground lightning aside, I have to learn to train in whatever weather I'm given.  It was hot during training last summer, and I didn't make myself stick it out (safely) in the heat.  And then it was hot on race day, and I wasn't used to it.  If I'd kept going through all those hot long runs (and always put on sunscreen no matter what weather.com said) I'd have been better equipped to deal with the heat in Chicago.
7. Race first, vacation second.
   Last year we arrived in Chicago on Thursday and left the day after the race.  That meant the vacation part of the trip was partially spent being nervous about the race, and I spent the day after the race sitting in a car getting stiff and sore.  This time we all agree it would be better to arrive on Saturday early enough to get to the Expo, and then stay through the following week to do fun vacation stuff.  That way we can walk off the post-race stiffness while shopping and we can actually enjoy vacation time without the pre-race nerves.  Also, after the race I won't be worrying about what to eat, so I can enjoy eating post-race junk food all over the city!

Starting off slow with new gear

This was week one of pre-pre-training.  The 2012 Chicago Marathon hasn't even happened yet, so it's a little early to be getting too hardcore about training for 2013.  And much like running the marathon itself, it's a bad idea to start out too fast.

Which, you know, I totally did last year on race day.  Lesson learned.

I read through all the training journal entries from last year and realized that if I had to do it all over again the one thing I would change is to start training way, WAY earlier.  Like, you know, the summer before.  As it was, I was still experimenting with running and training strategies halfway through the actual training schedule, when I really would have been better off to have had that stuff all worked out by week one.  So if there's one thing I'm really adamant about doing differently this time around it's putting in all my experimental workouts and getting very comfortable with my gear and strategy and abilities BEFORE training properly starts.

Thus the pre-pre-training.

Between now and the end of the year my goals are to get in the habit of going to the gym 3-4 times a week for cardio, getting comfortable running mile-long intervals, and regularly running at least 3 miles a week (aside from walking and cross training).  No specific workout days, total flexibility on when I do my workouts, just regaining my race day fitness level.  I want to run a lot more of the race this time around and, while I gained a lot of ground as far as running ability goes last time, I really was still a novice runner on race day.  I estimate that I ran about 4 miles out of the 26.2 last time.  That's not a lot.  At this point I'm envisioning even run/walk intervals for a race strategy, which means running half the time and over half the distance on race day.  That plan, of course, is subject to change.  But I should definitely be 100% positive I'm capable of keeping that kind of pace by week one of training. 

Like I said, though, I'm starting out slow.  I made it to the gym four times this week, as planned.  Did two days on the elliptical and two on the treadmill.  Ran a total of a half mile and walked the rest.  I haven't really been running lately because of all the wedding stuff, and my joints have to get used to it again.  No sense hurting myself now by starting out too hard.

But I did get some new gear!  I've been wearing the first pair of running shoes I trained in for the last marathon as work shoes, and they've gotten disgusting.  The pair I wore on race day have been my workout shoes, and they're still in good shape, but I've put enough miles on them that they're ready to be retired.  So I got a new pair of Nike Pegasus, mostly because I had a 25% off coupon to roadrunnersports.com that was about to expire and they were already on clearance:

'Cause how can you not love a good sale price on shoes?

So my nasty work shoes have traveled to the dumpster (my toes were starting to push through the mesh, anyway) and I have a cleaner but well-worn pair of shoes for work, and I can start pre-pre-training in nice, new, cushy running shoes.

The other gear change I knew I needed to make was to get a running watch.  Last year I used the MiCoach app on my Blackberry to track my runs via GPS.  It worked great.  And since my running intervals were based on distance, I didn't use any kind of device on race day.  But now I have an iPhone, which I've found is superior to the Blackberry in every way except one.

The battery life is crap.  Especially with location services on.

So I don't trust my phone battery to last through a 20 mile training run, especially if it's being used to track my speed and distance, signal intervals, and play music.  Plus, I don't want to be fiddling with my phone during the race or trusting it to run an interval timer to keep me on pace.  I just don't trust the battery.

While I didn't want anything with too many bells and whistles, I decided I would eventually need a GPS watch that I could use during training that would also be a good interval timer on race day.  I wasn't planning to buy one this early, but we went to look at some today because, you know, why not?  And since I was with my sister who likes to buy gifts for people all the time (because she's awesome) I walked out with a Soleus 1.0 GPS watch.

I charged it up and went to program it, and it seems like a pretty good runner's watch for the price, but sadly when I got into the instructions for programming it turns out that, despite specifically asking the staff at Academy for a watch with an interval timer, this one doesn't have one.  It seems to have everything else, though.  My sister also bought a Timex GPS watch and said if I don't like this one we can switch, so I guess I'll have to do that.  I am disappoint.

So I've got over a year to become a better marathoner.  My goal is to beat my time from last year, which is a pretty easy goal to beat.  Honestly, just starting training earlier and sticking with the training plan to the end will pretty much ensure a faster run this time around. 

It's coming.

Chicago.
2013.
21 weeks of pre-pre-training.
23 weeks of pre-training
18 weeks of training.
Stay tuned.
It's on.

New years and new plans

I've come to the realization that every year, without fail, I find myself lacking the will to really focus on working out starting around mid-October.  That's about the time I slack off and lose interest in my fitness routine and it lasts until the first part of January.  In 2008 I started my weight loss journey in May, lost weight consistently for a while, then fell off the wagon all winter until after the New Year.  I started tracking my food again, got down to a total weight loss of about 55 pounds, then stopped counting calories for the last few months of the year.  Come January of last year, then, I was in the mood to get serious again.  We joined the gym, got a trainer, I signed up for the marathon, and was consistently dedicated until race time, after which I just couldn't get myself consistently back into the gym.  And then a couple of weeks ago I started feeling compelled to go work out again.  Apparently this is just part of my annual cycle, and I'm not going to get all weird about it.  It is what it is.

Now that it's January, though, and I'm feeling all gung ho again, I'm back in the gym at least 5 days a week and ready to really get something accomplished.  I've promised Kourt that I won't get into a race training regimen until after the wedding, so no marathons this year.  And that's probably good, actually, because now that I'm on the other side of it I realize how much marathon training got in the way of weight loss.  You really can only focus on one thing at a time. 

So this year my big focus is the wedding dress.  I want to lose weight and look great on my wedding day.  I do have a bit of a side goal to keep running with the goal of improving my 5k time.  I'm good with distance, but not great with speed.  And racing is fun, so I definitely want to do more 5k and 10k races just for fun.  But this year I'm going to focus mostly on building a better body.  And to that end I'm going to lift weights.  A lot.  Hardcore.

I like lifting weights, and I've really liked working with our trainer.  We've learned a lot.  But marathon training doesn't leave much room for weight training.  You don't want to overwork your leg muscles on days that might affect your long runs or speed work days, and the long amounts of time spent on trails and treadmills really don't leave much time left over for strength training.  Now that I'm not spending three to five hours on a trail each weekend or doing hour long running workouts during the week, bring on the power lifting! 

In fact, I'm not even going to rely on calorie tracking unless I have to.  So far, without tracking my food or having an intensive cardio plan, I've lost three pounds in the last week or so.  I've been doing short treadmill runs to slowly build my ability to run faster over short distances, mostly as a warmup before spending 45mins to 1hr on focused weightlifting.  When I have time, then, I do some cardio after. 

It is time, though, to say goodbye to our trainer.  We've learned a lot, and I'm confident that we can put together our own workout routines without him, but our contract is up and financially it's time to focus that money on other things.  It's been one of the best things we've ever invested in, though, and I highly recommend it.